Peter Blake is once again the talk of the British Pop Art World, this time for the amazing price achieved at auction for his original artwork: 'Loelia, World's Most Tattooed Lady'.
The original painting, which was produced by Blake in 1955 while a student at the Royal College of Art began proceedings at Christie’s auction house, London with an estimate of £100,000-£150,000 and ending up with an astonishing hammer price of £335,000.
The piece displays motifs and methods that would become central to Blake's art: his fascination with fairground, circus and folk art, the inclusion of popular magazine-style illustrations and old-fashioned typography.
Blake's biographer Marco Livingstone, who wrote the book ‘One Man Show’, describes the piece as 'a multi-layered proto-Pop painting which occupies a key position in the history of British Pop Art'.
This is undoubtedly an iconic piece by the artist, but in fetching more than double its estimate marks an increasing interest in 20th Century British artworks.
It has often been said that British Pop artists are massively undervalued compared to their American colleagues, historically this has certainly been true for Sir Peter Blake. However, it seems that collectors are waking up to the importance of the British Pop art movement.
In recent times there has been a huge disproportion in prices achieved by Blake in comparison with Andy Warhol for example, encouraging collectors to buy up British Pop Art at an 'affordable' price.
This resurgence of interest has been gathering momentum over the last few years and such activity is gradually inflating prices. It is therefore perfectly sensible to expect equality in market value as this activity increases. It would certainly appear that collectors are realising the investment potential of British Pop Art.
Art Republic has an extensive and varied collection of Peter Blake limited editions for sale. To view our entire range of Peter Blake artworks click here. To read more about the talented artist, read our blog article here.
If you are interested in Peter Blake and/or British art and would like to know further information or to enquire about other works we have, please email hello@artrepublic.com.